Where: Virgil De Voldere Gallery, 526 West 26th Street, 4th Floor, New York, NY
When: April 26 – May 3rd, 2006 (until June 6th privately)
Opening Reception: April 25th, 6:30 – 8:30 PM
Contact: Blair Voltz Clarke, info@voltzclarke.com
(New York, NY) December 12, 2005: Up-and-coming artists from both across the pond and around the corner headline Blair Clarke’s exhibition, London Bridges. The show brings the work of two young artists from England to the United States, and introduces a native New Yorker to the gallery world. Blair Clarke, president and founder of Voltz Clarke, says, “I am thrilled to expose the work of these young artists and offer a glimpse of the innovations coming from both sides of the Atlantic.”
Born in Kent, England, in 1973, Lucy Soni attained a BA with honors in Fine Art from the Chelsea College of Art in London. Inspired by her 18-month-old daughter, Ella, Soni recently began rendering her child’s naïve scribbles into abstract drawings and paintings. The artist is interested in the relationship between an infant’s uninhibited marks and the abstract genre-by tracing and defining her daughter’s scrawls, Soni explores the friction between Ella’s childhood expression and Lucy’s maternal control. This process for Soni started with colored pencils on paper and developed into a series of large-scale oil canvases, which Voltz Clarke has been tracking for the past two years.
Shane Bradford, the show’s other English artist, is known for his “dipping” process, whereby various objects are repeatedly dipped in multi-colored emulsions. Recently Bradford’s art has broadened to encompass large-scale oil painting, three-dimensional objects and installation work with televisions. The humor in his work is supported by a complex and challenging balance of socio-political narrative and creative wanderlust. Created as a response to his surroundings, Bradford’s work celebrates the neon urban aesthetic while reconciling its commercial content. Recent acclaim at London’s Zoo Art Fair makes way for a major European solo exhibition of new works in 2006.
American mixed media artist Michael Marra is a graduate of Brooklyn’s Pratt Institute. Among the works he is presenting in London Bridges are a lighting installation and “Magic Carpet,” a rug that is sculpted into a seat. “It is important to me that my work has an element of discovery,” says Marra. “Sometimes this is achieved by exploring new and often unlikely materials to create something original, or by simply rethinking the relationships between two objects and the space they occupy.”
Voltz Clarke‘s mission is focused on building exposure for international contemporary artists through private consultation and public exhibition. Maintaining a roster of 10 to 12 artists, the company’s founder, Blair Clarke, works directly with all of her artists. Her goal is to exhibit their works to the largest possible audience, including online, in her private midtown salon and in galleries for the greater public.
